Friday, January 2, 2015

A young adult novel with an edge

By Tim Waggoner

Publisher: Past Curfew Press

Pub. Date: December 7, 2014

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Sarah Pennington has the misfortune of being paired with the local weird
kid, Ben Phelps, in her high school drawing class. Ben turns out to be a
talented artist and he shows her a drawing of a sinister man with
knifes that he calls Shrike. Sarah is at first leery of Ben but drawn to
him even when she discovered he has anger issues and may be hiding some
dark secrets. But when Shrike starts appearing in her dreams, and is
attacking people she knows in real life, she and Ben has to comfort the
evil to find out where it came from and how to destroy it.

It should be mentioned up front that the plot of Dark Art may sound a little too close to that of Nightmare on Elm Street
and Shrike to that horror icon Freddy Kruger. Yet the similarities
leave quickly as you read Tim Waggoner's exciting young adult horror
novel. The big difference is that, unlike Freddy, Shrike is a product of
young Ben's own emotions and difficulties in dealing with his anger. In
this, the author has create a YA novel that is not only fun to read but
deals with a essential part of growing up into adulthood; understanding
and expressing your emotions. Waggoner does this without one ounce of
preaching, expressing the issues through the action and tribulations of
the two main protagonists.

The strength of the book lies with the
characterizations of Sarah, Ben and Shrike. Ben and Sarah comes off
real and mired in teenage angst, the good kind and the bad kind. Young
readers will find themselves able to identify with them. Shrike is the
boogeyman but he is a monster created of real and normal fears resulting
from trauma and coming-of-age stress. The three main characters being
so deftly drawn heightens a minor problem that the rest of the
characters seem much like bit players simply there to serve the plot. It
is not that big of an issue though, as we are caught up with Sarah and
Ben's own dilemma so much that we can forgive the two dimensional
backup. However when it comes to the action, Waggoner has it moving like
a train on fire causing the reader only a little time to catch his
breath before moving on.

So Dark Art is a sturdy
contender in the YA horror/fantasy genre giving the readers a harrowing
tale while adding a little insight into their own emotional makeup.
There is violence in the story. It's a real live horror story not some
Meyers hack job, but the violence is well done with relevance to the
tale. However, the audience for this book should be considered. Dark Arts
may be a fantasy but it deals with reality and real life issues. Its
themes, which involve both death and suicide, may be too much for the
Pre-teens and Tweens but should be fine for the mid-teens which I think
it was meant for. Come to think of it. many of those tweens and teens
are already gulping down King novels. So who knows?

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

My name is Marvin P. Vernon and I am a retired social worker who specialized in family therapy and domestic violence prevention. In the past, I have been a contributor to the Fact on File Student Thesaurus and currently pass my time as an avid reader and reviewer. I also work as a volunteer librarian at the Sun City Palm Desert Library. You can also find my reviews on Goodreads You can contact me at mpvernon5149@yahoo.com